Roasted Peppers Italian Style
Roasted Peppers are very tasty, when combined with garlic and olive oil, they are magic. In many Italian-American households roasting peppers is a long-held family tradition; Vito’s Mom was no exception and we got to enjoy them many times as part of an antipasto before a holiday meal and sometimes along with lunch or in Grilled Italian Sausage and Peppers Two Ways.
Traditionally, the peppers were roasted individually over a gas burner, until the skin had blistered and blackened. The whole now-blackened peppers were placed in a paper bag to sweat and then the skin and seeds removed using your “asbestos hands” which can handle any hot foods; a unique biological “trait” which Vito’s Mom and he shared and I (Jan) do not. This first time I made them, I had forgotten that the peppers needed to be roasted whole, I cut them up and seeded them, so the first batch was made with skin and without the need of “asbestos hands”. We brought some to Vito’s Mom, who gave here wholehearted approval. From then on, the recipe below was used. During most visits to Vito’s Mom in Florida, I roasted peppers for her as they were a fave of hers, enjoyed with a nice piece of crispy bread. Enjoy!
Prep Time: 15 minutes, Total Time: 30 minutes. Serves: 4
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Homemade Italian Meatballs
Our Homemade Italian Meatballs or polpettone are so good and so versatile. Meatballs may seem so basic but oh how dreadful most of them are! Dry, rubbery, hard and full of filler, store-bought prepared meatballs are destined to leave you dissatisfied. The solution is to make them yourself! Our recipe for Homemade Italian Meatballs yields moist, chewy, soft and meaty (they are meat balls after all) meatballs which are easy to make; you’ll be so pleased with the result. Make a batch of Homemade Italian Meatballs to serve in Quick Tomato Sauce or Marjoram Marinara Pasta Sauce, as a main course with vegetables on the side or in Argentine Meatball Stew.
Prep Time: 1 hours, 10 minutes, Cooking Time: 35 minutes, Total Active* Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes. Yields approximately 48 golf ball size meatballs.
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Pork Parmigiana
Pork Parmigiana is so delicious! The tenderized pork cutlets are moist inside the crunchy coating, covered in tasty, aromatic sauce and melted cheese. You and your guests will barely be able to tell the difference from this recipe and the far-more-expensive veal variety. Pork Parmigiana does take some effort and time to make but it is so worth it. Make it for a special weekend dinner accompanied by a simple vegetable, like Broccoli al Limone.
Prep Time: 20 minutes, Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes, Serves: 6
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Rosemary Marinara Sauce
Rosemary Marinara is the perfect sauce for Chicken or Pork Parmigiana, adding to the overall richness of those dishes without masking or overwhelming the chicken or pork. Rosemary Marinara also great as the sauce for spaghetti or angel hair pasta for an easy dinner. The rosemary adds a deep, herbal element to an otherwise simple marinara sauce which has been enriched with dry red wine.
Prep Time: 10 minutes, Total Time: 50 minutes Provides sufficient sauce for 4 chicken or pork parmigiana cutlets. Serves 4 as a pasta sauce.
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Grilled Italian Sausage and Peppers Two Ways
Grilled Italian Sausage and Peppers Two Ways offers two crowd pleasing ways to serve these favorites.
Growing up in an Italian-American family in New Jersey, Italian sausage and peppers was a favorite and familiar summertime meal, whether from the backyard barbeque grill at Vito’s grandparents’ house or from one of the innumerable kiosk restaurants rising from or lining the boardwalk at seaside resorts “down the shore”, no tables, just counters with bar stools to “eat it there or take away somewhere”. Regardless of the venue, Italian sausage and peppers never failed to satisfy.
We have always preferred the grill to the griddle for cooking sausages and peppers; the slightly smoky and charred exteriors of the sausage links and peppers pieces yielding to juicy, flavor-bursting interiors upon biting into them. Here, we’ve prepared grilled Italian sausage and peppers two ways; the classic on a roll topped with melting provolone and mozzarella cheeses and grilled pepper strips and an alternative preparation with the sausages sliced into thin rounds and combined with the grilled pepper strips, then all mixed into quick tomato sauce with pasta. Either way, you will surely be satisfied. Enjoy!
Prep Time: 15 minutes, Total Time: 50 minutes Serves: 4
Support Cook and Eat at Home. Purchase a PDF of the Grilled Italian Sausage and Peppers Two Ways recipe for $1.00
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Quick Tomato Pasta Sauce
Quick Tomato Pasta Sauce is just that… a fast, easy, basic tomato sauce. It’s delicious, as is, served with pasta and perfect for a quick, easy and casual weeknight dinner; simple enough for kids but tasty enough for adults. This is a great recipe for novice cooks: few ingredients, easy and not time-consuming to prepare and tasty results. More experienced cooks will appreciate that it can also be used as a basic tomato sauce starter, ready to be embellished with other elements such as Homemade Italian Meatballs or grilled sausage. Quick Tomato Pasta Sauce serves well a component in some of our other recipes, such as Grilled Sausage and Peppers Two Ways or Argentine Meatball Stew, to name just two, which require a a simple but tasty tomato sauce to support the main elements of the dish. Quick Tomato Pasta Sauce will keep refrigerated for two days or freeze for future use within a month.
Total Time: 30 minutes Serves: 2
Support Cook and Eat at Home. Purchase a PDF of the Quick Tomato Pasta Sauce recipe for $1.00
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Green Beans Marinara
Green Beans Marinara is a typical Italian contorno or side dish. Oddly enough, while popular in Italian and Italian-American homes, it’s not often seen on restaurant menus in the United States. Contrary to its name, Green Beans Marinara is not just green beans thrown into a large pot of marinara sauce. The marinara sauce is minimal in volume as compared to the green beans; the sauce’s flavor permeates but must not overwhelm the wonderful juiciness of fresh green beans.
Easy to prepare and really delicious, Green Beans Marinara’s flavors are best when prepared with freshly picked green beans and tomatoes, as Vito’s grandmother would do with produce from her own garden. That said, using fresh green beans and ripe tomatoes from the farmers’ market or supermarket will also yield very good results provided you select the very freshest produce possible and prepare the recipe within a day or so of making your purchase.
Green Beans Marinara is a colorful side dish for steaks, chops and chicken, try some with London broil made with Dad’s Special Marinade for Beef; it is also quite good on its own accompanied by some fresh bread to soak up the sauce. Any leftover Green Beans Marinara can be refrigerated for future use within two days.
Prep Time: 30 minutes, Total Time: 1 hour Serves: 2
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Meatloaf Stuffed Peppers with Indian Tomato Sauce
Stuffed peppers are a dinner staple, reliable and nourishing but invariably boring. Well, boredom be gone with Meatloaf Stuffed Peppers with Indian Tomato Sauce! These peppers have a meatloaf stuffing and cooked in a not too spicy Indian-seasoned tomato sauce. While this multi-step recipe takes a bit of time to make, Meatloaf Stuffed Peppers with Indian Tomato Sauce is well-worth your efforts. Enjoy them for a weekend dinner with a simple first course like Sicilian Orange Salad.
Don’t be put off by the ingredients needed for the sauce, many of them are commonly available in supermarkets or online if there isn’t an Indian market/grocery store in your area. As an aside here, if you haven’t been to an Indian market/grocery store, we strongly urge you to head out to one. Explore and enjoy!
Prep Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes Total Time: 3 hours plus rest time, see the preparation section. Serves 6.
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Grilled Bruschetta Two Ways
Grilled Bruschetta Two Ways updates the popular Italian appetizer with all the flavors of summer. With one bite, you can taste the summer sun-ripened elements all brought together into a savory symphony.
Here we expand on the usual bread base by toasting the bread on the grill and complimenting them with grilled eggplant slices too. Grilling the bread and eggplant bases gives this bruschetta an added depth of flavor. The colorful and tasty dressing sauce adds flavor complexity and “Zip”, as Vito’s Mom would say.
Serve Grilled Bruschetta Two Ways to your guests as an appetizer before Chicken Abruzzese at your next dinner party or pass a platter of this bruschetta around at your backyard barbecue, either way, it’s a sure crowd-pleaser.
Prep Time: 30 minutes, Total Time 60 minutes Yield: 6 – 8 servings
Support Cook and Eat at Home. Purchase a PDF of the Grilled Bruschetta Two Ways recipe for $1.00
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Sicilian Orange Salad
Beautiful Sicilian Orange Salad is very easy to prepare. Its combination of flavors, which at first glance may seem improbable, hits all the perfect notes on your palate and evokes the bounty of sunny Sicily using just four ingredients. It’s a great appetizer or a different side dish for rich meats, such as Carnitas. Sicilian Orange Salad is a wonderful addition to an antipasto or a brunch buffet, as it is real showstopper and always piques the curiosity of your guests. Consider Sicilian Orange Salad as the appetizer for a Sicilian-themed dinner, followed by Sicilian Style Cauliflower Pasta for a real treat.
For added color, prepare Sicilian Orange Salad with blood oranges, as shown, or a combination of regular oranges and blood oranges. We recommend using really good quality extra virgin olive oil and fresh oregano leaves in this recipe but dried oregano leaves will do if fresh are not available. Try it and you will understand why Sicilian Orange Salad is a family favorite, chances are that you’ll want a spoon for the sweet orange juices and extra virgin olive oil on your plate. Thanks to Vito’s Dad!
Total Time: 20 minutes. Serves 2. (more…)
